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A sense of feeling of anticipation. I can see the chilled vapour exhaled by my rivals as they perform the "starting line" shuffle on the beginning point.

A rapid movement of the hips.

I'm participating in my local weekly parkrun event and I'm serious. The countdown begins...

Oh, hang on. I need to start my device. So does the person alongside me.

The person waiting sighs. I refuse to go until… done! Connection established, I'm off.

Amidst the crowd, it's difficult to find a arm without a fitness tracker on it. And this isn't only us participants who wear them.

It's a explosive, massive industry. Companies like Samsung Galaxy lead the market, all offering an wide array of diverse devices to cater to a spectrum of needs. According to how feature-packed the model you choose, prices can vary between an affordable sum to a significant investment.

"I find it infuriating, I can't stop checking."

"It provides solace… It's like a friend encouraging me."

"Please don't notify me I've experienced a poor sleep."

Just some of the responses people have shared from other device users when I ask what they their opinion is on theirs.

The Monitoring Conundrum

My current opinion on my own device? Right now, annoying. It's telling me my speed is wrong, causing me to question whether the foliage I'm running below are interfering with my satellite signal.

Millions of us attach these little gadgets onto our wrists and keep them on constantly, seemingly comfortable with the fact they're constantly monitoring us.

Gone are the days when we relied on them only to give us an rough count of our step count. Currently, they can track our sleep patterns, stress levels, heart rate variability (HRV), our recovery score.

It's a challenge to find a health indicator they fail to monitor.

But do they do what they advertise? And are the numbers we scrutinise a faithful picture of the truth? Do they improve our daily wellness, or do the multitude of metrics and cheerleading alerts just increase our everyday anxiety?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I find myself getting a a little obsessed with mine," one user admits.

While she values how her device tracks her workouts, she finds some of its other functions "overwhelming" at times - a feeling first discovered during a pregnancy.

Before she realised she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was not being energetic enough. Later on, the watch keeps telling her she's had a restless night.

"I have a infant, it's unnecessary for me to be notified I've not slept," she says. "That fact is only too well."

Why doesn't she just take it off?

"It's possible, I suppose, but I've got this complicated dynamic with it," she says. "I value it for its exercise data, I just wonder whether the additional features it can now do is perhaps excessive for me."

How Do They Work?

Every device of smartwatch has its own novel way of measuring your bodily functions and analysing your data, but the most use optical sensors on the back of the watch.

They usually emit tiny, coloured LED lights onto your skin which can detect pulsation, recording your pulse rate. Sophisticated devices measure changes in the electrical current that passes over the skin to get an idea of your nervous system activity.

A Fine Balance

A professor says that overall for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the ever-evolving tech could actually save lives, "spotting abnormalities before we notice anything", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "concerned but fine".

He points out that the most advanced wearables can carry out tests like medical-grade monitoring, which continuously monitor how normal the heart is. They can notify if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is abnormal electrical activity in the heart causing an arrhythmia.

This does not necessarily indicate someone is on the verge of a heart attack, but it can give an early warning they might be more susceptible of a blood clot in the years to come.

But how to make sense of these figures is complex. The expert concerns that as further capabilities are introduced, people may find it hard to fully comprehend their data.

"I remain sceptical that being able to monitor so much data is such a good idea," he says.

A professor studying patient behaviour echoes this sentiment. Her work into the effect of wearable tech on a cohort of individuals with health issues suggested a noticeable percentage of those who were given devices to monitor their condition experienced heightened worry and were "far more likely to use doctor's time".

She observed a vicious circle with her patients - they spotted a concerning reading on their watch. They became worried. Their pulse increased. They got even more concerned. They looked a second time, and their anxiety went up again.

"Upon viewing stats about ourselves that we can't properly interpret then, naturally, we are going to want to know more," the psychologist says. "We check, we re-check - it becomes a vicious cycle."